Sepsis and/or septic shock was an independent risk factor for mortality on logistic regression analysis, although the rate of bacteremia was low.
Additional factors associated with increased mortality:
(1) older age (survivors had a mean age of 63 years vs 73 for nonsurvivors)
(2) history of coronary artery disease
(3) absence of fever
(4) jaundice
(5) biliary or cryptogenic origin (intra-abdominal had a p value of 0.056)
(6) infection with E. coli or a Candida species
(7) pneumonia
where:
• Although the text indicates hyperbilirubinemia is a risk factor, 66% of people who survived had a total serum bilirubin > 2.2 mg/dL vs 63% of nonsurvivors.
• Other origins for infection were intra-abdominal and hematogenous.
• The p value for a serumc creatinine > 2 mg/dL was 0.08.
• The presence of multi-organ failure would be expected to increase mortality. Sepsis or septic shock may be used synonomously with the sepsis syndrome. This also may explain the low rate of bacteremia observed.
• Serum albumin was listed in Table 1 but not Table 3.
Risk factors associated with complications:
(1) absence of fever
(2) hyperbilirubinemia (3.1 mg/dL vs 0.8 mg/dL)
(3) higher serum creatinine
(4) larger abscess (7.7 cm vs 4.8 cm)
